Hernando De Soto And His Expeditions Across the Americas

157 Pages·2005·2.65 MB·English

by  Janet Hubbard-Brown

Explorers of New Lands
Hernando de Soto
and His Expeditions Across the Americas
Explorers of New Lands
Christopher Columbus
and the Discovery of the Americas
Hernándo Cortés
and the Fall of the Aztecs
Francis Drake
and the Oceans of the World
Francisco Coronado
and the Seven Cities of Gold
Ferdinand Magellan
and the Quest to Circle the Globe
Hernando de Soto
and His Expeditions Across the Americas
Francisco Pizarro
and the Conquest of the Inca
Marco Polo
and the Realm of Kublai Khan
Juan Ponce de León
and His Lands of Discovery
Vasco da Gama
and the Sea Route to India
Explorers of New Lands
Hernando de Soto
and His Expeditions Across the Americas
Janet Hubbard-Brown
Series Consulting Editor William H. Goetzmann
Jack S. Blanton, Sr. Chair in History and American Studies
University of Texas, Austin
COVER: A portrait of Hernando de Soto
CHELSEA HOUSE PUBLISHERS
VP, NEWPRODUCTDEVELOPMENT Sally Cheney
DIRECTOROFPRODUCTION Kim Shinners
CREATIVEMANAGER Takeshi Takahashi
MANUFACTURINGMANAGER Diann Grasse
Staff for HERNANDO DE SOTO
EXECUTIVEEDITOR Lee Marcott
EDITORIALASSISTANT Carla Greenberg
PRODUCTIONEDITOR Bonnie Cohen
PHOTOEDITOR Sarah Bloom
COVERANDINTERIORDESIGNER Keith Trego
LAYOUT 21st Century Publishing and Communications, Inc.
© 2006 by Chelsea House Publishers,
a subsidiary of Haights Cross Communications.
All rights reserved. Printed and bound in the United States of America.
www.chelseahouse.com
First Printing
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hubbard-Brown, Janet.
Hernando de Soto: and his expeditions across the Americas/Janet Hubbard.
p. cm.—(Explorers of new lands)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7910-8610-0 (hard cover)
1. Soto, Hernando de, ca. 1500-1542—Juvenile literature. 2. Explorers—America—
Biography—Juvenile literature. 3. Explorers—Spain—Biography—Juvenile literature.
4. America—Discovery and exploration—Spanish—Juvenile literature. I. Title. II. Series.
E125.S7H83 2005
970.01'6'092—dc22
2005010069
All links and web addresses were checked and verified to be correct at the time of publication.
Because of the dynamic nature of the web, some addresses and links may have changed since
publication and may no longer be valid.
Table Contents
of
Introduction by William H.Goetzmann vi
1 Conquering an Empire 1
2 The Boy Adventurer 13
3 Conquering Nicaragua 25
4 The Central America Years 38
5 Discovery of Peru 51
6 On to La Florida 67
7 Mississippian Culture 80
8 The Changing Tide 93
9 End of the Road 106
Chronology and Timeline 120
Notes 123
Bibliography 126
Further Reading 127
Index 128
Introduction
by William H.Goetzmann
Jack S.Blanton,Sr.Chair in History and American Studies
University of Texas,Austin
E
xplorers have always been adventurers. They
were, and still are, people of vision and most of
all, people of curiosity. The English poet Rudyard
Kipling once described the psychology behind the
explorer’s curiosity:
vi
INTRODUCTION vii
“Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and
look behind the Ranges—
Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and
waiting for you. Go!”1
Miguel de Cervantes, the heroic author of Don
Quixote, longed to be an explorer-conquistador. So
he wrote a personal letter to King Phillip II of
Spain asking to be appointed to lead an expedition
to the New World. Phillip II turned down his
request. Later, while in prison, Cervantes gained
revenge. He wrote the immortal story of Don
Quixote, a broken-down, half-crazy “Knight of La
Mancha” who “explored” Spain with his faithful
sidekick, Sancho Panza. His was perhaps the first
of a long line of revenge novels—a lampoon of the
real explorer-conquistadors.
Most of these explorer-conquistadors, such as
Columbus and Cortés, are often regarded as heroes
who discovered new worlds and empires. They
were courageous, brave and clever, but most of
them were also cruel to the native peoples they
met. For example, Cortés, with a small band of
500 Spanish conquistadors, wiped out the vast
viii INTRODUCTION
Aztec Empire. He insulted the Aztecs’ gods and
tore down their temples. A bit later, far down in South
America, Francisco Pizarro and Hernando de Soto
did the same to the Inca Empire, which was hidden
behind a vast upland desert among Peru’s towering
mountains. Both tasks seem to be impossible, but
these conquistadors not only overcame nature and
savage armies, they stole their gold and became
rich nobles. More astounding, they converted
whole countries and even a continent to Spanish
Catholicism. Cathedrals replaced blood-soaked
temples, and the people of South and Central
America, north to the Mexican border, soon spoke
only two languages—Portuguese in Brazil and
Spanish in the rest of the countries, even extending
through the Southwest United States.
Most of the cathedral building and language
changing has been attributed to the vast numbers of
Spanish and Portuguese missionaries, but trade with
and even enslavement of the natives must have
played a great part. Also playing an important part
were great missions that were half churches and half
farming and ranching communities. They offered
protection from enemies and a life of stability for
INTRODUCTION ix
the natives. Clearly vast numbers of natives took to
these missions. The missions vied with the cruel
native caciques, or rulers, for protection and for a
constant food supply. We have to ask ourselves: Did
the Spanish conquests raise the natives’ standard
of living? And did a religion of love appeal more to
the natives than ones of sheer terror, where hearts
were torn out and bodies were tossed down steep
temple stairways as sacrifices that were probably
eaten by dogs or other wild beasts? These questions
are something to think about as you read the
Explorers of New Lands series. They are profound
questions even today.
“New Lands” does not only refer to the Western
Hemisphere and the Spanish/Portuguese conquests
there. Our series should probably begin with the
fierce Vikings—Eric the Red, who discovered
Greenland in 982, and Leif Ericson, who discov-
ered North America in 1002, followed, probably a
year later, by a settler named Bjorni. The Viking
sagas (or tales passed down through generations)
tell the stories of these men and of Fredis, the
first woman discoverer of a New Land. She be-
came a savior of the Viking men when, wielding a